Adopting new technology is increasingly looked at by CEOs and boards in all industries as an effective way to create market disruption, drive growth and profitability and, in some cases, is the catalyst for transforming the business.

"There is a race to innovate to ‘stay in the game’ but with an increased rate of change comes increased business risk," says Cris Nicolli, managing director, UXC.

"If there was ever a time for CIOs and their technology project partners to work strategically and methodically, it’s now.”

The term ‘disruptive innovation’ was coined by Harvard Business School Professor of Business Administration, Clayton Christensen, it “describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors."

"Disruptive technologies can have a variety of impacts on the business," Nicolli adds.

"This can range from reducing prices and lowering barriers of entry for users looking to access a particular product or service to changing the manner in which an organisation can review customer go to market strategies and transforming processes and culture."

Technologies with the potential to disrupt markets currently include: cloud; mobile applications; security; and business intelligence platforms, tools and applications.

"For example, enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology was once so expensive and required so much knowledge that it was only suitable for large enterprises," Nicolli adds.

"However, as options such as functionally lighter versions or more template-based lower cost versions became more readily available, ERP functions became accessible and affordable to even smaller businesses.

As a result, Nicolli believes ompanies must look to make disruptive innovation a reality but need to be prepared to step outside of their comfort zone and take some risks in order to reap the potential rewards.

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